She says when she first en­quired about it, Hous­ing New Zealand ‘‘didn’t even know the house was theirs’’ and she had to ap­proach the Cen­tral Otago Dis­trict Coun­cil to con­firm Hous­ing New Zealand was ac­tu­ally the ratepayer.

Af­ter ac­knowl­edg­ing it was in fact theirs, Hous­ing New Zealand let her ap­ply to rent the prop­erty, she says.

A fam­ily-owned house in a trust ul­ti­mately meant she didn’t meet the re­quire­ments to rent it, which she ac­knowl­edges is fair.

But, she says: ’’I think it needs to be [ten­anted]. It be­longs to Ki­wis.’’

A third Cor­nish Pl res­i­dent claims she knows a first home buyer who had also en­quired about it to which Hous­ing New Zealand re­sponded that they didn’t own it.

Hous­ing New Zealand re­futes this claim say­ing the own­er­ship of all prop­er­ties is eas­ily dis­cov­er­able and there would be no rea­son to deny own­er­ship.

The govern­ment agency says ‘‘it ap­pears there is no cur­rent de­mand for three-bed­room homes’’ by el­i­gi­ble fam­i­lies.

A Hous­ing New Zealand spokesman says if lack of de­mand for the two prop­er­ties con­tin­ues it will con­sider sell­ing them.

RHYS CHAM­BER­LAIN/FAIRFAX NZ

A va­cant Hous­ing New Zealand prop­erty in Cor­nish Pl, Cromwell which will have been va­cant for a year in June.